The present invention pertains to a sputtering target having a uniform and ultrafine structure and capable of suppressing the generation of particles and obtaining a thin film with favorable uniformity, and to the manufacturing method of such a sputtering target.
In recent years, the sputtering method for forming a film from materials such as metal or ceramics has been used in numerous fields such as electronics, corrosion resistant materials and ornaments, catalysts, as well as in the manufacture of cutting/grinding materials and abrasion resistant materials.
Although the sputtering method itself is a well-known method in the foregoing fields, recently, particularly in the field of nanotechnology, a sputtering target suitable for forming films of complex shapes is in demand.
Deposition technology is mainly used in the foregoing nanotechnology, and, since even the grain boundary of the formed film will become a problem in nanoprocessing, a deposition method enabling the formation of a film without a grain boundary; that is, an amorphous film or a film equivalent thereto is being sought upon forming a thin film.
Although the sputtering method is superior as a deposition method, since the target composition, structure, property and so on will be directly reflected on the quality of the thin film, a metallic glass target material capable of easily forming an amorphous film or a film equivalent thereto is being sought.
Conventionally, as methods of manufacturing a bulk-shaped metallic glass, proposed is a water quenching method of rapidly cooling the molten metal sealed in a silica tube and obtaining a bar-shaped metallic glass; a method of using a water-cooled copper mold and performing arc welding and quenching; a mold clamping casting method of melting metal on a copper mold, pressing this with a platen, and rapidly cooling this to obtain a metallic glass; a method of performing injection molding at a high pressure and rapidly cooling this with a copper mold; and a method of solidifying molten metal on a rotating disk to manufacture a metallic glass wire rod (for instance, refer to Functional Materials “Manufacturing Method of Bulk Metallic Glass”, June 2002 Issue, Vol. 22, No. 6, pages 26 to 31).
Nevertheless, the foregoing manufacturing methods are manufacturing methods to be performed from molten metal, and are subject to quenching. Thus, it is necessary to equip the device with a function to match such quenching conditions, and there is a drawback in that this incurs extremely high costs. Further, the manufacturable shape is also limited, and there is a problem in that only a target of several cmφ can be manufactured.